ICYMI- My new piece in @foreignpolicy.com with Caroline Costello @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social “China’s Appetite for Rosewood Is Causing Chaos in Africa” 🪵 foreignpolicy.com/2025/09/09/r...

In 2007 I was backstage in Luanda, Angola watching The Game perform when his diamond necklace snapped causing a stampede and I was evacuated with him and his entourage as the angry crowd shook the vans. 🫣

In 2024 alone, 889,000 CCP members were disciplined, more than four times the number in 2013. www.scmp.com/news/china/p...

Over the next decade, around 300 million people in China are expected to retire, nearly equal to the entire U.S. population. 👀https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-earmarks-16-billion-budget-for-2025-childcare-subsidies

One reason I respect Pete Buttigieg: Pete genuinely listens to critics & constantly evaluates what he believes & why he believes it. He's unafraid to change his mind based on facts & ethics. Even for people who hate him or will never support him, he'll still listen. That's a courage I don't have.

The problem, as I see it, is that if you remove LoRs and GREs amid AI written app essays and extensive grade inflation (at least in U.S. undergraduate programs) then what is then left to evaluate the quality of applicants? 🤔 P.S. we read LoRs @notredame.bsky.social

A scientist tried to discredit the theory that ultra-processed foods are killing us. Instead, he overturned his own understanding of obesity.

@petebuttigieg.bsky.social is the best politician in America today.

Singapore is facing some kind of ongoing cyberattack aimed at critical infrastructure. Developing.

Another great review! 😁 worldpolicyhub.com/chinas-relat...

China’s growing cyber-hacking capabilities raise alarm around the world – The Straits Times

Singapore actively dealing with ongoing cyberattack on critical infrastructure, Coordinating Minister for National Security K Shanmugam says – CNA: ‘identified the entity as UNC3886, which Mandiant has described as a “China-nexus espionage group” that has targeted prominent strategic organisations’

Does anyone know who wrote this? ctexp.substack.com/p/turning-ag...

It shouldn't get lost that just today, Senate Republicans have voted to close nursing homes, close rural hospitals, and cut food stamp benefits for children and veterans.

Diplomatic staff at the Chinese embassy in Prague led an intelligence operation, including a plan of physical confrontation, against Taiwanese VP Hsiao Bi-khim during her 3-day visit to Prague in March last year -confirmed by Czech military intelligence. english.radio.cz/china-aimed-...

After a long gestation, this @universitypress.cambridge.org Element on Sino-Middle Eastern relations finally has a page and a publication date! This new work by Mohammed al-Sudairi and I will be in Open Access. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

This is a really important story: on the danger of believing your own conspiracy theories. Iran did. Is the US next? www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

In his two decades at Arizona State Univ, Michael Crow has been the most innovative and creative figure in American higher ed. (And I mean, in a good way.) Here he makes a point that should be obvious to everyone except Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Trump himself. www.wsj.com/opinion/inte...

An Afghan man who worked as a translator for the U.S. military during the war was detained by ICE after showing up for a hearing inside of a federal courthouse in San Diego, his attorney says. He fears that if he returns to Afghanistan, he would be tortured or even killed, @nbcsandiego.com reports.

IMHO- Boys should start kinder a year after girls. We did this with both our boys and it was the best decision we ever made for their education, athletics, and social development. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/u...

New Chinese trade data out today for May may deepen anxiety over trade diversion in Europe. China's exports to the US down 34.52% China's exports to the EU up 12% China's exports to Germany up 21.5% China's exports to France up 24.1% China's exports to Netherlands up 7.1%

this is social media but it's also the growth of legal sports gambling - players are regularly getting abuse and threats for 'underperforming' - or in some cases *overperforming.*

Al Jazeera: ‘Tidal wave’: How 75 nations face Chinese debt crisis in 2025 Developing countries to pay a record $22bn this year, mostly linked to loans from #China ’s #BRI

Wow! This reminds me of what the Maoists did during China’s Cultural Revolution! They called it the ”Worker, farmer, solider” (工农兵) campaign! 🤯

I'm seeing a lot of the special protesting leftist Jews do when they're trying to convince others anti-semitism is bad, which requires caveats and standards that, if demanded of any other group, would be straightforwardly recognized as racist bullshit.

Outraged and heartbroken by the news of two young people killed last night in DC in a targeted act of antisemitic violence. This is the opposite of advancing justice and peace - it only furthers the violence, pain, and loss - and such hatred must be firmly rejected by all.

"I have one important piece of advice to share: Show courage. This is not simply a display of moral strength. It is also an effective strategy for fighting back against creeping authoritarianism." — @yaqiu.bsky.social

"Not long ago, anyone could comb through a wide range of official data from China. Then it started to disappear." Fascinating deep dive into China's disappearing data - from cremations, to youth unemployment, to soy sauce production www.wsj.com/world/china/...

I've written a couple of times, including in a recent book, about about the Global Engagement Center, which worked to expose networks of Russian and Chinese disinformation around the world. As a result, along with many others, I am on what appears to be an enemies list

Goldman Sachs high-frequency data suggest that Russia’s annualised growth rate has fallen to zero • Russian development bank VEB finds similar trends in estimates of monthly growth • Data highlight how Kremlin has exhausted financial buffers to prop up economy and could soon struggle to finance war

Wait… let me understand this…my 11 year old shouldn’t be able to watch Harry Potter now because the author supported a UK Supreme Court ruling that you disagree with?! 🤯

Fieldwork in Morocco! 🇲🇦 🤓

🇮🇱🇦🇿 Reports of pending Netanyahu visit to Baku focus on the Abraham Accords angle. Fair enough. But there is much more to this meeting, which would also touch on critical strategic challenges with Syria, Türkiye, and Iran. www.jpost.com/middle-east/...

Krugman on Trump and the horseshoe theory: "If you want a model for what’s happening to America, think of Mao’s Cultural Revolution." open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

"It’s time for Americans in universities, law, business, nonprofits and the scientific community, and civil servants and beyond to form one coordinated mass movement. Trump is about power" From David Brooks www.nytimes.com/2025/04/17/o...

on the Kleptocracy Presidency: The number and nature of conflicts of interest is astonishing www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Here’s the truth that nobody will tell you…. … China’s focus on vocational education and manufacturing tools can be traced directly to policies adopted during the Mao era. m.youtube.com/watch?v=2wac...

"Shinn and Eisenman have teamed up to produce a monumental survey of China’s strategic engagement in Africa." - Deborah Brautigam @johnshopkinssais.bsky.social Read the full book review in the latest issue of Pacific Affairs! 👇 @columbiaup.bsky.social pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews...

“Intel analysts said the network is a prime example of how foreign-linked entities are trying to gather intel from staff fired or forced into retirement by Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency” www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2025/03...

Truly must-read work by the amazing AidData team 🔗https://www.aiddata.org/publications/belt-and-road-reboot

There are signs far from Washington that moderate Democrats are doing extremely well in districts Trump captured only a few months ago.

Question: does anyone know if fertilizer application was a distinctly “male” or “female” occupation in 1970s China?

Been listening to a lot more James Taylor these days….

New Juan Soto! #MetsSky

The destruction of DOD’s Office Net Assessment will be celebrated in Beijing & Moscow. This little-known but enormously consequential 50 year-old institution actually thought long-term. It helped us win the Cold War, grasped the China challenge early, and figured out revolutions in warfare.

Surprise! The Russians, who have repeatedly said they don't want a ceasefire, have once again said they don't want a ceasefire

Germany's spy agency thinks an accident in a Chinese lab likely led to the COVID-19 pandemic, media say. Evidence it collected allegedly indicates negligence at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. www.dw.com/en/covid-pan...

I support @petebuttigieg.bsky.social for President!

@fetterman.senate.gov remains a voice of reason in a Washington DC packed with ideologues and sycophants. Thank you! 🙏